Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Munich Madness! A Travel Post

After my yoga course in Austria finished, I had one and a half days of Fun Time in Munich. It was my first time ever going to Munich, and I had a great time. Munich is clean, safe, bustling with traditional and modern elements, has great public transport... Of course, it was freezing cold - but I didn't let that stop me! I spent most of the first day wandering around the historic city center, but I can't show you many pictures of that part, because I had forgotten my brand new camera in Austria (!!! ack !!!), and had to wait to a friend to bring it to me. Phew.

The most important place for a fellow vegan to know about in Munich is Max Pett, an all-vegan, all-YUM restaurant just minutes from the city center. I'd heard about it, and decided to check it out for lunch... even though I knew I'd be back again for a dinner date later with some PPK friends.

Lunch was totally fantastic. A butternut squash soup, an amazing array of veggie side dishes, some perfect German bread (LOVE IT), and all finished off with some fruit tea - of course.

I also cruised around and had some fun doing foodie shopping. First of all, I found the wonderful store called Bio Basic - a good-sized grocery store full of various exhilarating products. I had to pick carefully about what could come home with me on the plane... and had a great time snooping around. I ended up with some cake decorating supplies, some little nutella-type tubs, some vanilla sugar, and two packages of Bavarian-style tofu sausages (which I forgot to photograph). Plus, check out my awesome new pretzel-shaped cookie cutter!

Between BioBasic, and a few other foodie stores I hit up, I ended up coming home with a wonderful supply of fruit tea. One of those teas in the sampler pack even has Specculos in it!!!! Wowza! I have been seriously grooving on this stuff.

After my shopping fun, I headed over to the Neue Pinakothek Museum, where you can enjoy a pretty nice art collection - including VanGogh's Sunflowers and a lovely Waterlilies painting by Monet. It's really easy to get around by tram from the center to the museums and back.

Of course, I had some more fruit tea at the Museum Cafe before heading back out into the rainy cold with my sad, broken umbrella. Guys, I wasn't kidding when I told you that I really fell in love with fruit tea.

This was a cheap umbrella I bought on a rainy day in Barcelona. During my brief time in Munich, it managed to flip inside out about 1 million times and then two little spines got unattached and in the end I just threw the damn thing away. Note for my packing list next time I head off to a rainy climate!

A few late day rainy pictures of Munich:

Finally the hour arrived for our PPK meet-up! We had all pre-determined which color scarf and jacket we'd be wearing, so it was easy to find each other - even though we'd never met before. After finding one another, we headed over to Max Pett and had a grand feast of maximum yumminess and fun visiting.

Dr. Chipmunk and I both ordered the Goulash (left), which was served with big chunks of veggies and seitan in a wonderful sauce and with a side of pasta. I loved it. Anek got the Soya Steak, with a peppercorn sauce, roasted potatoes, mashed parsnips, and some greens. Hers was really great too.

Even though we could have stopped there... we bravely forged ahead and ordered two desserts to share amongst the three of us. This dish was called Kaiserschmarrn, but don't let that name fool you - it was Out Of This World. Apparently this is a traditional Austrian dish - very thick crepes, served with caramelized almond slices and fresh apple sauce. And some sort of maple syrup. Friends, this was one of my favorite things ever.

We also ordered this assortment of 3 ice cream flavors (vanilla, hazelnut - my fave, and some other flavor we couldn't quite place), topped with caramel sauce and wonderful crunchy nuggets of delight. Man, it was so good!

Here we are, just us chickens! I love how the community of friends I've made on the PPK has truly given me friends all around the world. It's amazing that you can meet up with people you've never met before (in person!), and instantly have so much report and comfort and friendship. Long Live the PPK!

My final morning in Munich, I woke up to snow on the ground and decided to go for a walk to the nearby Nymphenburg Palace and Park. Of course, almost within seconds of leaving my hotel, it started snowing like crazy (at which point I regretted having already thrown out my crappy umbrella!). I was wishing I could wedge my head in somewhere cozy like these swans and geese.

After checking out the Palace, I decided just to tough it out in the snow and go for my walk in the park no matter what. I'm so glad I did. It was totally magical. So beautiful.

And about half-way through my walk, the sun came out! Glory! You can see a little glimpse of the Palace down at the other end of the lake.

Also, you animal lovers would appreciate all the amazing birds there. Probably because of all the water, there were SO MANY different birds in the park. Aside from those geese and swans you saw earlier, there were all sorts of ducks and water birds and even some who looked like terns. I especially loved this little red-head.

After that, I zipped off to the airport ... ready to enjoy 12 1/2 hours of Lufthansa! It was a really great trip. I'll probably be going back for the next part of the yoga course again next year, and I look forward to spending another day or two in Munich again. (must eat more Kaiserschmarrn!)

13 comments:

I love travel posts! Germany is a country I've never visited, but you sure make it look like an inviting destination. Max Pett will be on my list if I ever make it to Munich. And I agree with you that it's amazing how you can meetup with people you've only met through blogging, and they become your real friends instantly.

Hi there, I accidently stumpled over your blog and really enjoyed reading your post on the vegan Munich experience :) I am a vegan myself, living in the north of Germany. Anyway, I can totally relate to you falling in love with Kaiserschmarrn - it's one of my favourite desserts as well! Soo, I thought why not quickly jotting down a recipe for you to bridge the time till your next visit. Here we go:1 c soy milk (or milk of choice)4 heaping tbsp flour1 heaping tbsp soy flour (or No-Egg)1 tbsp brown sugar1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp rum30g raisins

powdered sugar, oil

combine the rum and the raisins in a small bowl and let sit for 30 mins (or over night).whisk together other ingredients.heat some oil in a pan and pour dough in. turn heat back to medium/low and wait until the edges become set. the center should still look slightly liquid. flip and use a fork to tear it into small pieces. add some more oil if necessary. cook through, stirring often until everything is golden brown. serve topped with powdered sugar.yay, hope you enjoy it! :D

I love Max Pett! I ate there when I visited in August and it was great! There were some other vegan places in Southern Germany that I wanted to try that were unfortunately on holiday during my visit. One of these days I'll have some authentic vegan schnitzel!

What a great post! It was a trip down memory lane for me - I went to Munich for a couple of nights way back in 2001, and I remember the beautiful Nymphenburg Park..in fact, it was snowy there when we went also, so everything looks the same! Lovely!!

No changing of place at a hundred miles an hour will make us one whit stronger, or happier, or wiser. There was always more in the world than man could see, walked they ever so slowly; they will see it no better for going fast. The really precious things are thought and sight, not pace. It does a bullet no good to go fast; and a man, if he be truly a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory is not at all in going, but in being.

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